The windshield of an American Airlines plane cracked over two hours into the flight, forcing it to divert from its path from New York to Spain.
American Airlines Flight 94 departed John F Kennedy International Airport at 7.28pm on Wednesday for Madrid but turned backward to Boston due to the windshield cracking mid-flight, said Massachusetts State Police.
At 9.46pm, an Alert 2 was issued for the flight, said police, according to NBC 10 Boston.
An Alert 2 is one of three aircraft emergencies defined by the Federal Aviation Administration. A document on the city of Phoenix’s website states that Alert 2 ‘indicates that an aircraft is having major difficulties (i.e., a positive indication of fire on board the aircraft; faulty landing gear; no hydraulic pressure; engine failure on a two-engine large aircraft; etc.)’.
In addition, a ‘difficult or crash landing may be expected’, it reads.
The Boeing 777-200 landed at Logan International Airport without issues at 10.03pm, according to FlightAware.
American Airlines late Wednesday stated that the flight was diverted because of a ‘maintenance issue’.
‘The flight landed safely and the aircraft was taken out of service to be inspected by our maintenance team,’ the airline told NBC 10 Boston.
‘Customers will re-depart for (Madrid) tomorrow on a replacement aircraft. We never want to disrupt our customers’ travel plans and apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.’
American Airlines did not immediately provide information on the apparent cracked windshield.
Passengers said they were informed they would depart for Madrid on Thursday at 4pm. One passenger, Nico Moreno, called the incident ‘kind of shocking’.
‘No one could believe it and then when we return, we land and they say, “OK, guys you have to spend the night in Boston,”‘ Moreno told the news outlet.
‘And I think everyone, not freaked out, but we got mad.”
Moreno added that the airline did not provide passengers with food vouchers.
It is one of the latest cracked windshield incidents on planes departing or arriving in the US.
Just a month ago, a United Airlines flight that took off from Las Vegas for Denver made an unplanned landing in Denver after a crack was discovered on the windshield. The Boeing 737-800 landed safely and passengers were transferred to another jet to continue to their original destination.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE : Travel warning as Spanish city will start charging tourists for popular attraction
MORE : Map shows spread of wildfires in Texas after nuclear plant evacuated
MORE : Death row killer’s execution called off after lethal injection botched eight times
Get your need-to-know
latest news, feel-good stories, analysis and more
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
